securitysales.com May 2016 Vol. 38, No. 5

THE CAMPUS SAFETY ISSUE

BriscoeProtective’s KnockoutCombinationPersonalized, Bundled

Services Pack Punch

Up, Up & Away Go Video, AccessStudy Shows Biz, Tech, Market Gains

Hot Education and Health-Care OpportunitiesCredentialing � License Plate Capture

Mass Notification � Surveillance

Plus: ISC West Wrap-up

34 SECURITYSALES.COM MAY 2016

A lot has changed since

Long Island’s Briscoe

Protective Systems threw

its hat into the residential

security ring nearly 40

years ago. Company

leadership explains how

and why the firm has

moved up in class to

become a heavyweight

provider of commercial

security and fire

solutions, and champion

of community causes.

By Scott Goldfine

URE ROCKY BALBOA had the heart of

a lion, but he would have never gotten

as far as he did without a remarkable

trainer in his corner providing the requi-

site guidance, support and tough love. Cue

“Gonna Fly Now (Aeme From Rocky),”

and all due respect to the late, great Burgess

Meredith. Fact is whether facing threats in

boxing or security/Ire safety you need the

right partner in your corner. How apropos

then that one such provider is actually

named after a prizeIghting trainer, Joseph

Bartholomew “Bert” Briscoe, who coached

dominant Light-Heavyweight World

Champion Archie Moore.

Founded in 1978 as a residential alarm

company called Delco Security Systems in

Brooklyn, N.Y., the business was later named

Briscoe Protective Systems after the grand-

father of Bob Williams, one of the company’s

principals. Bert Briscoe’s ideals are credited

for inspiring the company motto, “People

Helping People Make a DiYerence.” Aat

philosophy transcends the Irm’s security

and Ire/life-safety products and services

as evidenced by its personalized customer

care, free end-user training courses and Just

One Life program partnering with Ire dis-

tricts to distribute (and sometimes install)

smoke/CO detectors.

“My grandfather always told me the

most important thing you can do in life is

make a diYerence in other people’s lives.

It always stayed with me,” says Williams,

who now serves as president of the com-

pany. “He passed when I was about 13,

but my grandfather’s Ighting spirit lives

on at Briscoe today.”

Arough the years, Briscoe Protective

has nimbly adapted to market needs and

new opportunities. In the late 1980s, man-

agement formed a Ire alarm equipment

distribution company specializing in New

York City-approved Ire alarms. Ais busi-

ness grew more rapidly than the security

division, so in 1993 they combined the

companies. Later that year, the residen-

tial security accounts were sold in order

to focus on the commercial and institu-

tional markets. Today, Briscoe Protective

Systems provides a wide array of security

and Ire safety solutions to a wide variety

of clients from three locations (New York

City, Long Island and Westchester).

Briscoe Protective’s approach is reap-

ing dividends as the company weathered

the recession like a champ and came out

of it swinging. In an exclusive SSI inter-

view, Williams and two of his top advisors

— Vice President/General Manager Da-

vid Miranda and Vice President/Comp-

troller Margaret Eckel — take oY their

gloves to reveal why business is personal

for them. Ae execs also lend insight into

one of Briscoe’s chief markets, education

and health-care campuses.

Briscoe Protective uses Sedona’s computerized business system to effi-

ciently coordinate dispatching techs, who all have iPads in the field.

EXCLUSIVE EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

MAY 2016 SECURITYSALES.COM 35

Briscoe Protective has diversified through

the years. How have you gone about that?

BOB WILLIAMS: We originally started as a

residential burglar alarm company. How-

ever, the competition was �erce and so in

order to get into more sophisticated work

we decided to go into �re. We’re basically

commercial, industrial and institutional

in our approach. When we stayed in �re

we noticed that some of the companies

we worked for were having other security

�rms come in, and as the competition was

getting �ercer in security they were trying

to do �re as well. We decided to branch into

security so that we could take one custom-

er and o�er them a multifaceted approach.

Now we’re trying to bundle our ser-

vices, similar to what the cable industry

does. Many people today use their cable

company for phone and Internet as well

as television service. �ey usually bun-

dle their services. So we’ve been working

with sprinkler companies and also we’ve

added �re extinguishers to our repertoire

so we can provide all the �re and security

needs of a customer, and they don’t have

to go to another location. Bundled ser-

vices is the mantra for Briscoe for this year.

How is 2016 shaping up for the business,

what is helping you meet your numbers?

WILLIAMS: We’re 10%-15% above last

year’s �gures. �e reason we feel that has

happened is because we’ve personalized

our dealings with the customer rather

than just focus on bulk sales. We �nd that

when companies get larger the services

become a commodity rather than a per-

sonalization. Fire and security services are

very personal, especially with security di-

rectors whose reputation and job depends

on how well they provide the services for

the customers. �ey’re looking for some-

body to talk to and that knows the di�er-

ent types of services. �ey’re also looking

for one source so they don’t have to deal

with 10 companies to get �re and security.

FAST FACTS

Founded in 1978 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Employees number 48

Annual revenues are $6.5M+

Product mix is fire alarm services 60%;

security, access and video 20%; monitoring

services 20%

Areas of New York operations are New York City

65%, Long Island 25% and Westchester 10%

Customer mix is 60% commercial, 30%

institutional and 10% industrial

Fire • Security • Video • Access Control

Protective Systems Inc.

Briscoe Protective Systems President Robert Williams (right)

and Vice President/General Manager David Miranda have

helped lead the business to 10%-15% growth so far this year.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT GREENSLADE

36 SECURITYSALES.COM MAY 2016

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW: BRISCOE PROTECTIVE PULLS NO PUNCHES

As Briscoe grows, how are you managing to

continue to deliver a high standard of service?

DAVID MIRANDA: We really pride our-

selves in our service and feel that’s what

makes us stand out. We have a saying that

anybody can sell a red box, but it’s what

you provide behind that red box. Our great

service leads to organic growth, which

is wonderful but then causes the issue of

trying to keep up personnel to match that

growth. �en while salaries increase, our

customers are always looking for lower

prices. So we do a really good job of watch-

ing costs and streamlining procedures.

WILLIAMS: To maintain a high stan-

dard of service we use the Sedona com-

puterized business system to dispatch our

technicians, who all have iPads in the !eld

and are able to get to service calls in the

least amount of time thanks to our coor-

dinated dispatching. And we’re practically

a paperless o"ce because a customer can

sign documents that can be sent back to

the o"ce immediately. We save a lot with

economies of scale on that.

We have concentrated mostly on organic

growth within our company. We !nd a lot of

other companies that look to grow through

acquisition are very fragmented. �ey still

do a lot of things manually, and that inhibits

their organic growth. We found that through

the bundling we’re able to grow very well,

and do not have to go into the acquisition

market for any signi!cant growth.

What is the top operational challenge you face

today and how are you contending with it?

MIRANDA: It’s maintaining a quality tech-

nical sta#, guys that are !eld ready. Nor-

mally when you !nd or are approached by

a technician that has some years of expe-

rience, my experience has been they come

with bad habits. So we try to hire person-

nel that is raw but has a great attitude and

is a team player. And we utilize our in-

house resources to try and ramp up their

training as quickly as possible. Besides our

training boards we’ve created, we like to

do a lot of online training. We seek to help

advance their knowledge so as to exceed

our customers’ expectations.

What marketing channels bring the most

business — referrals, prospecting, RFPs?

MIRANDA: We are blessed to have a very

proactive marketing team. We continued

to grow through the !nancial crisis of

2007-2009, and one of the main things we

grew was our marketing team. We knew at

some point things would turn so we want-

ed to be ready. Where other companies

were probably cutting their marketing

sta#, we actually increased it. �ey really

get us involved with lots of di#erent asso-

ciations such as electrical contractors. We

do a lot of nonpro!t work in New York City

so they !nd every possible trade show or

meeting that we can really use our brand

to try to generate new business.

Besides the word of mouth that spreads

with regards to our service, our Web site

is constantly being tweaked and we really

stay up on the trends, keeping up with what

people are looking for. We’ve instituted a

whole variety of di#erent site features, such

as a chatroom, that have brought us great

leads the past couple of years.

Another key marketing tool we use is

providing a certi!cation class that helps

sta#s prepare for the FDNY [Fire Depart-

ment of New York] exam. We’ve given this

training free of cost to more than 1,000

people. It’s a three-hour course given

by regular sta# members who take their

time to go out as part of giving back to

community. And it also brings business.

People see the dedication and knowledge

Briscoe has to provide these free classes,

and they come back to us and look for

quotes on their business needs.

What about company culture? Do you

have a special sauce that keeps personnel

motivated and ensures high retention?

WILLIAMS: We call our employees co-work-

ers because I like that word better. We all

work together. As president of the company,

I don’t use the title president. I use “chief

co-worker” and working together is import-

ant in your work family. We give awards out,

a couple awards a year to people who take

the Extra Step in providing above-average

customer service and things.

We had one young lady who went out

Through the years since its founding nearly 40

years ago, Briscoe Protective Systems has nimbly

adapted to market needs and new opportunities. To-

day, the company provides a wide array of security

and fire safety solutions to a wide variety of clients

from three locations (New York City, Long Island and

Westchester).

MAY 2016 SECURITYSALES.COM 37

into the �eld herself when we couldn’t

get a technician fast enough to one of the

locations. She had had some training at

Briscoe on what to do, but was never in

the �eld. She went out to the customer

and a technician explained to her how to

make a temporary repair to the system.

�at was at 2 a.m. �at’s the kind of ded-

ication we have. It’s not something we

recommend all the time but this young

lady took it upon herself to do it, and de�-

nitely got the Extra Step Award.

We celebrate everybody’s birthday at

a monthly party where we also acknowl-

edge di�erent events in people’s lives or

families. People who aren’t in the o�ce,

such as technicians, we send them a

birthday card with a personal note and

a certi�cate for a co�ee gift card. We also

have a �shing trip every year. We do a

bowling event yearly. �ese are ways of

developing teamwork and keeping peo-

ple motivated.

Moving to technology and systems, what is

a hot opportunity; what are the challenges?

WILLIAMS: �e biggest one that’s upcom-

ing is the mass noti�cation of people, espe-

cially in areas like campuses. College cam-

puses have buildings that are separated

from each other and they need to be able to

let people know what’s going on if there’s an

active shooter, if there has to be a lockdown

of buildings and to keep everybody aware

of situations. Especially today with terror-

ism, it creates a lot of confusion and people

don’t know if they’re going into a situation

or running from it. So mass noti�cation

using speakers and everything, combining

them with security and �re alarms, is a very

big market that’s upcoming.

Probably the top challenge is intro-

ducing people to the concept of mass

noti�cation. A lot of times schools like to

use pagers or sending it to a smartphone

or E-mail rather than a voice noti�cation.

So a change in people’s attitude toward

how they get noti�ed is an important

thing. Also there’s a budgetary constraint.

When you think of new concepts and

new ways of doing things, people always

say, “How can I pay for it?” �e budgets

would have to expand in certain areas.

Some states provide some funding, but

more cooperation from governments to

try to help get some of these systems that

a�ect the general public is important.

What about recurring revenue and services?

What offerings are you zeroing in on?

WILLIAMS: Video veri�cation is becom-

ing very popular and video monitoring

of an alarm event in real-time is really

something presenting some opportuni-

ties. Also medical alerts, which is geared

a lot toward residential but it’s coming

also on the commercial market as well.

And the managed services where you

can remotely monitor access control and

alarm systems via portable devices.

Whenever you start with a new service

and new concept it takes a while for peo-

ple to understand how it can a�ect their

lifestyle and be used within their lifestyle.

We have to reeducate our customers into

how things work and how new things are

done, so that they’ll ease into these new

services. We have to be able to create a de-

mand for them by increasing the under-

standing of the services, how they work,

and how they can bene�t the customer.

Campuses play large in Briscoe’s customer

mix. What are some keys to success?

WILLIAMS: Combining and bundling

services, especially in the K-12 market

where if an event happens like a panic

situation you just don’t send an alarm

Briscoe Protective’s staff carefully coordinates its efforts so as to remain a highly personalized,

single-source fire and security solutions provider (above). As a prominent symbol of the pride the firm

takes in helping firefighters better do their job and lessening the likelihood of fire-related casualties and

losses, Briscoe shows off historic fire/life-safety memorabilia throughout its headquarters (below).

38 SECURITYSALES.COM MAY 2016

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW: BRISCOE PROTECTIVE PULLS NO PUNCHES

into an o�ce. You have to combine the

services and maybe notify all the sta� via

phone. You may do lockdown on certain

rooms. You may send a message over the

speaker system. Providing the total solu-

tion to that type of scenario, especially

with the younger kids, is very important.

It has to be automatic, not letting people

be able to chock open doors and rear ex-

its and things. You want to have entrants

go through a particular area in the school

and not four or �ve areas. It has to be done

with a plan and has to be a uni�ed system.

When you go to colleges and universities

where you have older students, and some

colleges today want to almost be 24 hours

and you have people living on campus as

well, that brings a whole di�erent myriad

of challenges. As I had mentioned, you can

address them by using a mass noti�cation

system, where not only do you send mes-

sages via texting or E-mail but also in voice

activation in these buildings as well.

In health care the challenges are dealing

with the Joint Commission that accredits

those facilities. �ey have changing rules

and regulations, and you have to understand

them. It’s not only what a particular hospital

or health-care facility wants. It’s what the

Joint Commission decides they want gener-

ally for all hospitals and health-care facilities

that you have to understand in order to get

past their accreditation approvals.

How do you set your company apart from

the competition in the campus arena?

WILLIAMS: When you go into the cam-

pus arena it’s usually a lot more people

involved in life safety than in smaller

places. Usually campuses have a pub-

lic safety department as well as a facility

department. O�ering to educate them is

a very important thing, being able to do

the classes mentioned earlier. We teach

people how to maintain their �re alarm

systems, and in certain jurisdictions like

New York City they require somebody

onsite in school as well as in any facil-

ity that has a �re alarm system to un-

derstand how they work in the di�erent

devices. �ey’re actually responsible for

reporting to the owners and to the re-

sponding alarm companies.

We di�erentiate by being able to pro-

vide education to these customers, in both

the public safety and the facility manage-

ment area to get them to understand how

to deal with the security and �re alarm

systems, and how they work together in

unison to provide uni�ed response.

What else can you tell me about Briscoe

Protective’s role in the community?

MAGGIE ECKEL: Briscoe takes pride in

working in cooperation with our custom-

ers in order to ful�l our founder’s motto,

Bob’s grandfather, of “People helping

people make a di�erence.” Our largest

customer type is quite possibly not-for-

pro�ts, many of which provide such great-

ly needed services for youth and adults

of disabilities. �ings have turned back

to the communities and away from insti-

tutions, so we �nd that’s a much-needed

service our customers are providing.

Briscoe donates to our customers in the

ways of journal ads for their fundraising ef-

forts. We regularly donate to our customers

and attend their fundraising events. Also

throughout our community we provide do-

nations to many charitable organizations

we believe are really making a di�erence.

Tell me about the company’s onsite fire

detection and response history memorabilia.

WILLIAMS: �ere’s two ends of the �re in-

dustry: It’s the �re alarms where we stand

in silence like sentinels waiting for alarms

to happen, and also the �re department

that responds and depends on us to be

able to pinpoint alarms to them. We have a

lot of di�erent items that show both ends.

We started with the �re marks that

were issued by insurance companies and

put on buildings in the late 1700s, early

1800s. When the volunteer �re�ghters

would respond, they got paid or donated

their e�ort after they put out the �re from

the insurer involved. Many early �re safe-

ty regulations came from insurance com-

panies because they had to make busi-

nesses and residents whole if something

happened. It was very important those

�res were put out fast because most orig-

inal documents lost in a �re would not be

able to be reproduced. Especially in cities

like New York where buildings are very

close, �re spread easily.

We also have �re street pull stations

from the 1800s, and we have early 110V

�re sprinkler supervisory panels. We

have an Edwards �re alarm bell you used

to have to wind up. Can you imagine go-

ing into a high-rise building today and

winding up 200 bells? Years ago that was

what happened. We also have about 100

�re patches from di�erent �re units.

�ere’s a lot of pride in what we do

here and we like to express it by show-

ing all the di�erent historical �re alarm

equipment. SSI

MORE ROUNDS WITH BRISCOE ONLINE!

For much more from this conversation and

photo galleries check out the online version

at securitysales.com/briscoe2016.

Training is central at Briscoe Protective. Not only internally for techs and other workers, but also exter-

nally for the community, with free certification courses offered to those preparing for the FDNY exam.